Lionel toy and model trains have simple functional remote control. Best option: LionChief Plus with Bluetooth.

This guy makes the case pretty well:

It's a good introduction to modern technology in toy trains.

You can slide past his detailed description of this particular locomotive to the functional stuff about remote control. I've been researching the current options, including those from:

- MTH: Uses WiFi through a router from loco to its app on phone or tablet.

- Bachmann: Uses a simpler Bluetooth connection from loco to app on phone or tablet.

- BlueRail: Makes the circuit boards and software used by Bachmann in its HO locos; BlueRail products can also be purchased separately.

I was all set to get MTH stuff but trying to decipher MTH options and product lines and way too much confusing extra hardware delayed my decision. Then I thought Bachmann was the way to go; no WiFi, just Bluetooth and no extra hardware. Now I prefer what Lionel has done:

- Very simple physical remote control (forward/reverse, sounds, including announcements), I think first introduced in kids sets for TOY trains as distinguished from MODEL trains:

        - Thomas

        - Polar Express

- LionChief

- LionChief Plus with Bluetooth connection from loco to app on phone or tablet. But Bluetooth is only in some newer locos. So far, not easy to determine which.

Note: Some of the kids sets have battery powered locomotives with a simpler but functionally same remote control. They retail for about $100 and run on plastic tracks. They are G scale (large). This is a very good value. The main negative is that the loco is powered by six C batteries. I don't know how practical it is but functionally it would have been preferable to have something like a rechargeable lithium ion battery, the type that we use in phones and tablets.

Be careful of older LionChief locos, introduced around 2015. Later Lionel came out with LionChief Plus. All LionChief and LionChief Plus locos have the physical remote that is nicely paired to its loco using radio frequency, NOT Bluetooth. However, only some newer LionChief Plus locos also have the Bluetooth connection to the app, which among other things can control the volume of the sounds; LionChief Plus locos can also have their volume controlled via the remote. The plain LionChief locos have their volume set to VERY LOUD and the volume cannot be reduced no matter what some Lionel documentation states. The only option is to turn the loco upside down and flip the sound on/off switch. But even that only eliminates the sound of the announcements and, I think, idling (cannot recall). The buttons for bell and whistle still work and are VERY LOUD.

I now think the way to go is LionChief Plus with Bluetooth. It's got BOTH a physical remote AND access to the more functional app. Except for MTH, I don't see that the others have a decent remote and MTH, I think, outsmarted itself and awoke Lionel, which made a big comeback. A few years ago the Lionel CEO was essentially removed:

Lionel CEO left April 16! Howard Hitchcock is the new president. TUESDAY, MAY 13, 2014

Dealers had been ignorant about this tech evolution in the last five years and I've only just caught on in 2018. I had been ignoring the clumsy alphabet soup mess that the industry had been engulfed in trying to satisfy too many old guys who wanted anything new to also work with their old stuff ... if at all.

Note: Most, if not all, apps were initially written for Apple products. My guess is that the decision makers were not too computer techie and defaulted to Apple iPads and iPhones. Later some added app versions that ran on devices running the Android operating system.

But even now the Lionel Layout Control System (LCS) app is still only Apple; no Android version in sight.